When more than 10,000 Chinese heavy-metal fans in black T-shirts pumped their fists in the air at a Metallica concert in Shanghai in August, executives of Anschutz Entertainment Group were ready to pop open the Champagne.

The show sold out in six minutes, even though the company spent just $2,000 to advertise it on Chinese social media. And it was among the few AEG concerts at which Chinese officials let the audience do what rock audiences do in the West: Stand up, scream and go wild.